This invention relates to an adjustable hospital bed, and more particularly to an adjustable hospital bed having attached thereto a three-position wall spacer adapted to prevent contact between the headboard of the bed and an adjacent wall.
Hospital beds having a relatively fixed frame mounted on castors and supporting a movable frame through head and foot elevating linkages are well known. These adjustable beds commonly have a normal or down position, elevated treatment positions achieved by operating the elevating linkages to raise the movable frame, and extreme tilt positions achieved by operating only the foot elevating linkage (Trendelenberg tilt position) or the head elevating linkage (reverse Trendelenberg tilt position).
When in use, a bed of this type is usually positioned normal to a wall of a room with the headboard adjacent to and spaced slightly away from the wall. The bed may then be employed with the movable frame in a down or normal position or, by operation of the appropriate linkages, the movable frame may be raised into any elevated treatment position or moved into an extreme tilt position as required. When being raised or lowered, the movable frame undergoes a longitudinal motion with respect to the fixed frame. In some bed designs this movement is directed toward the head of the bed when the movable frame is raised; in other designs, movement toward the head of the bed occurs when the movable frame is lowered. Further, when the movable frame is tilted into the Trendelenberg position, the headboard is tilted toward the adjacent wall. Thus there exists the likelihood that during elevating and tilting operations the headboard will be brought into contact with the adjacent wall, resulting in damage to the wall and limiting further travel of the movable frame.
To overcome this problem, one could locate the bed at a distance from the wall sufficient to accommodate movement of the frame into all treatment and tilt positions and locking the castors to prevent an accidental repositioning of the bed. Alternatively, as in some prior art hospital bed designs, a fixed spacer bar could be provided to space the bed a fixed distance from the wall. Either of these approaches will achieve the desired result of preventing contact of the headboard with the adjacent wall. However, positioning the bed away from the wall at a fixed distance sufficient to accommodate movement into the more space-consuming Trendelenberg tilt position wastes a considerable amount of the usually limited available room space when the bed is to be used only in the down or elevated treatment positions. Further, a fixed spacer bar of sufficient length will extend a considerable distance beyond the head of the bed and be a safety hazard when the bed is transported in the down position.
Another prior art method has been to employ rollers or wheels mounted on the headboard and adapted to provide rolling contact between the wall and the headboard during the elevating and tilting operations. The rollers prevent damage to the wall, and, upon further movement of the headboard toward the wall, the bed is urged outwardly from the wall. The outward motion of the bed will be of course accomplished only if the castors upon which the bed rests are not locked to prevent movement. Thus, the castors must be unlocked prior to elevating or tilting the bed, then again locked to prevent an undesired repositioning of the bed.